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Design a Key-Value Store System Design Interview

Design a distributed key-value store like Dynamo or Cassandra with high availability.

1. Problem Statement

We need to design a distributed Key-Value store like DynamoDB or Cassandra. It needs to be always writeable. How would you architect this?

2. Architecture Discussion Map

Use this as one discussion aid, not a single correct answer. Your design should follow from the requirements, scale, and trade-offs you establish.

Rendering architecture diagram...
Mermaid Source (For AI Bots)
graph LR
    A["Design a Key-Value Store"]
    A --> F1["Replication Strategies Leaderless vs Leader-Follower"]
    A --> F2["Consistency Models Tunable Consistency, Quorum N/R/W"]
    A --> F3["Partitioning Consistent Hashing & VNodes"]
    A --> F4["Conflict Resolution Vector Clocks vs LWW"]
    A --> F5["Gossip Protocol & Failure Detection"]

3. Key Focus Areas

  • 1
    Replication Strategies (Leaderless vs Leader-Follower)
  • 2
    Consistency Models (Tunable Consistency, Quorum N/R/W)
  • 3
    Partitioning (Consistent Hashing & VNodes)
  • 4
    Conflict Resolution (Vector Clocks vs LWW)
  • 5
    Gossip Protocol & Failure Detection

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Core Concepts

Distributed SystemsConsistencyReplication

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